The Wonderful End Of The World

There's No Escaping the desperate inspiration here -Namco's Katamari Damacy. You walk around, getting stuff stuck on you, growing, collecting larger items, until you're as big as the level. The concept, gameplay, whimsical presentation, musical style - even the feel of one or two of the less ambitious maps - are as close to identical to the oddball classic as laws allow.

Whereas the real Katamari has stagnated somewhat - the Xbox 360 version was a dull exercise in by-the-number iteration - The Wonderful End of the World has plenty of imagination, and some excellent level ideas. The Arcadia level, in which your progress causes the field to pull back, revealing more and more classic coin-ops being played, is brilliant - and the word blocks level is aching for modders to make it filthy.

But these cubic, concept levels are the exceptions. The levels which are more reality-based just don't work as neatly, and have enjoyment-shattering issues with collision detection. Nothing ruins a time-limited game more than becoming trapped in a glitch, and the graphically busier levels drag along like a dog with an itchy arse.

You can't say that this is a good idea with only passable execution, because that's misplacing the credit for the idea. However, what The Wonderful End of the World lacks in elegance and originality, it makes up for with flashes of imagination and brilliance that have been lacking in the inspirational franchise. In the absence of an official PC Katamari, download Worlds demo from Steam, and then decide it it's worth your fiver.